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V/O(Kevin Bell): Baltimore is an interesting place. It’s a city that has taken it on the chin.

SUPER: Kevin Bell, Vice President of Development, The Woda Group LLC

Kevin Bell: And is trying very hard to live well and to treat it’s people well.

SUPER: Annie Hall, Community Activist

Annie Hall: Nobody was interested in doing anything for Penn North.

V/O(Kevin Bell): You know in our society, there’s not a lot of resources that come to a place like this.

Annie Hall: After thirty-six years of working for social security, I thought that I would come home and retire. But, in looking at the environment around me, I had to do something to make this a better community. We started the Penn North Community Association. We came up with a master plan of what we would like to see happen in this area. We needed houses, but I just didn’t want them on Pennsylvania Avenue. But Kevin won me over. Kevin Bell: This is Penn Square. It’s a ninety-one unit new construction of one and two-bedroom apartments. V/O(Joyce Moskovitz): This project has made a huge difference to the whole community.

SUPER: Joyce Moskovitz, Sr. Client Manager, Bank of America

Joyce Moskovitz: It really has given them, a sense of hope, that something good can happen in their neighborhood. We started this project in 2008. And it was pretty common for lenders to walk away. Bank of America made a commitment, to finance this project, and we continued to stand by that commitment.

Annie Hall: This has begun the revitalization of this area.

V/O(Joyce Moskovitz): I think that once that people’s lives are stabilized in terms of living situations. It helps them, to be able to, get the rest of their lives together and move forward.

Kevin Bell: There’s a Chinese proverb that says, ‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first footstep.’ And this is a footstep here in this community, and this is a good footstep.

Annie Hall: It’s about making this community a better place to live.

Housing Development Anchors Renewal/en-us/partnering-locally/penn-square-apartments.htmlGet the whole storybankofamerica1359940|enter782|cr-en402How a housing development inspired jazz and blues to get back on its feet in Baltimore./en-us/partnering-locally/penn-square-apartments.html_self1359940|enter782|2014_581||1359940|enter782|2014_00||

everymantheatredefaultPlayertrueblack/assets/images/partnering-locally/local-markets-3/video-stills/everyman-theatre_082812_878x494.jpg|Shot of stage with audience at Everyman Theatre|A theater company’s historic new home |||/partnering-locally/everyman-theatre.html|_SELF

BANK OF AMERICA RTP-BALTIMORE EVERYMAN THEATRE- AS PRODUCED VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

V/O(Vincent Lancisi): Theatre Opera gives the community, an opportunity to come together, to share common stories. It brings laughter, joy, sadness, tears, anger…all the human emotions. It lets us explore who we are, or who we want to be. From day one, our passion was about creating great theatre here in Baltimore.

SUPER: Vincent Lancisi, Founder/Artistic Director, Everyman Theatre

Vincent Lancisi: And using the best professional actors we could find. And giving them great place to play. And we were pioneers, there was no one in this block it was a forgotten block. People said, ‘Oh, you’ll never survive. No one will ever go there.’ But they came, one by one. Patrons love to tell me about how many years they’ve been coming. It’s a fierce sort of loyalty.

Patron: It has a sort of magic about it that, makes you feel that it’s your theatre.

Patron: It’s very comfortable, it’s very intimate,

Actor: I get to work on new work that’s important to our generation and things that are going on now.

Actor: There’s always something in it that’s thought-provoking or challenging.

Patron: Incredible productions that not just push us, but please us. And help us to experience new things.

Patron: Every neighborhood should be so fortunate to have an Everyman Theatre.

Actor: It’s a great place to call home.

V/O(Vincent Lancisi): We’ve come of age. We deserve to, have a building that has the tools, that we can give to our artists to create at the highest level possible.

Gina Hirschhorn: Bank of America realized that we could be a part of that. We had made a $120 million dollar commitment to the center point neighborhood, and had one space that had not been developed and that was the old town theatre which is now going to be the new Everyman Theatre.

Vincent Lancisi: Bank of America donated the building to us for a dollar. It’s amazing.

Gina Hirschhorn: Bank of America had the vision that the theatre could be an important part to the revitalization of this neighborhood.

SUPER: Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Mayor of Baltimore

V/O(Stephanie Rawlings-Blake): We have art. We have theatre. It creates that sense of vibrancy, vitality, in a community that will hopefully inspire people to live there, investors to invest…

V/O(Vincent Lancisi): Bank of America basically said to the community, they are worthy. Support them. And then they backed it up, in so many other ways. They’ve helped us with our tax credits, they’ve helped us with, all kinds of resources. Getting other corporations to support us.

Gina Hirschhorn: The bank has continued to support Everyman’s annual operating campaign for the last fifteen years and then supported development of their capital campaign for the new space.

V/O(Vincent Lancisi): We want this to be a place where, everybody who lives within this community can congregate and enjoy life. That’s what it’s about.

Charlie Duff, President, Jubilee Baltimore Inc.: City Arts is an apartment building for artists and it’s designed to build the arts district right here in Station North in Baltimore.

Piper Watson, Photographer & Resident, City Arts: For me, City Arts was the perfect place. Having an affordable live-work space is a really amazing and unique thing.

Ashby Foote, Marketing Coordinator, City Arts: That’s pretty much a miracle for an artist. Living in the building we have a number of performers, we have writers, painters, sculptors, photographers, and all that creativity is contagious.

Piper Watson, Photographer & Resident, City Arts: You can offer creative advice, you can get inspiration or painting supplies. You can offer business advice to one another. So it really fosters community.

Charlie Duff, President, Jubilee Baltimore Inc.: We’ve got a waiting list that is a couple of years long. So it’s a tremendous success that way.

Ashby Foote, Marketing Coordinator, City Arts: The greatest feature of our building is the gallery space. It brings a lot of people in besides just the people that live here. So people know that something is happening.

Piper Watson, Photographer & Resident, City Arts: I’m working on two shows. One of the shows would be here. And it’s like, oh my gosh.

Charlie Duff, President, Jubilee Baltimore Inc.: Art is not a hobby – it’s a business. When people paint pictures, they sell them. When they put on plays, they sell tickets. So in this part of Baltimore, increasingly, you’ve got galleries, performance spaces, stores, restaurants.

Ashby Foote, Marketing Coordinator, City Arts: I was surprised that Bank of America was providing the capital for making this happen.

Charlie Duff, President, Jubilee Baltimore Inc.: Bank of America financed City Arts in 2009 which was a very dark year in the American economy in a neighborhood that was heavily vacant.

Joyce Moskovitz, Senior Vice President, Community Development, Bank of America: Bank of America provided the construction loan and a permanent mortgage. In addition the bank invested it’s own money into City Arts through a program called the loan low housing tax credits program. The City Arts project is really the first one in probably 15 or 20 years to come along and provide some new energy for the community. And I think that’s really important.

Charlie Duff, President, Jubilee Baltimore Inc.: City Arts has been open for less than a year. During that year, a good developer bought every vacant piece of ground on this street and is building new houses on the vacant land.

Dale Hargrave, President, New Greenmount West Community Association: It’s been a renaissance. We’ve got a school that was close for 7 years that has reopened. People are discovering how vibrant the community actually is.

Walter H. Jefferson, Jr., Facility Manager, City Arts: This neighborhood is coming together. When I see something positive coming up in the community.

Charlie Duff, President, Jubilee Baltimore Inc.: 20 years from now, you will be able to come to Baltimore and walk for miles and be in great city neighborhood every step of the way.

Art Helps Bring Back Baltimore One Brushstroke at a Tim/en-us/partnering-locally/city-arts.htmlGet the whole storybankofamerica1359940|enter782|cr-en402See how City Arts' creative approach to housing helped bring new life to a Baltimore community./en-us/partnering-locally/city-arts.html_self1359940|enter782|2014_828||1359940|enter782|2014_581||1359940|enter782|2014_00||

fells-point-meatdefaultPlayertrueblack/assets/images/partnering-locally/local-markets/LM_008_242x167.jpg|Fells Point|From a Row House to New FacilityA lifelong dream helped Fells Point Wholesale Meats grow from a row house to new facility.||Investing and Empowering Biotech Innovations in Massachusetts|/partnering-locally/high-res-bio.html|_SELF||Ozinga has been a Part of Chicago's Growth and Iconic Skyline for Generations|/partnering-locally/ozinga.html|_SELF||Supporting a Cultural and Culinary Institution in Seattle|/partnering-locally/uwajimaya.html|_SELF||Helping Small and Medium-Sized Businesses to Fuel the Economy|/partnering-locally/sid-taylor.html|_SELF||Lean, Green, Clean: Investing in San Diego as a Hub of Clean Tech|/partnering-locally/cleantech.html|_SELF||Bank of America’s $10 Million Grant Program to CDFIs Unlocks Federal Funds for Small Businesses|/partnering-locally/10million-grant-program.html|_SELF

Transcript – A lifelong dream helped Fells Point Wholesale Meats grow from a row house to new facility

Erik Oosterwijk, President, Fells Point Wholesale Meats: I grew up in a butcher shop with my dad. At 12 years old I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to be a butcher – that’s the only thing I wanted to do. And the passion for it has never gone away.

Leo Pruissen, Vice President, Fells Point Wholesale Meats: In 1993 from a little place in little Italy – and we eventually became a major player in the meat market in the Baltimore area.

Erik Oosterwijk, President, Fells Point Wholesale Meats: Our processing crew starts at 3am in the morning. The filet man, for instance, gets all the tickets for the filet mignons and starts trimming whatever they need for that day. Then it goes to the packing department. It gets packed any which way a customer would want it. From there it makes it out to the loading dock, it goes on the truck and gets delivered.

Alan Morstein, Owner, Regi’s American Bistro: We get deliveries from Fells Point meats sometimes twice a day. We get product that’s been butchered that morning and presented to the plate that evening – that’s fresh.

Leo Pruissen, Vice President, Fells Point Wholesale Meats: Last year we moved into this 40,000 square foot brand new facility. We probably are the largest meat processor in the Baltimore region and it keeps on growing. Robert is our local banker of Bank of America – he knows our companies in and out. What we do, what our needs are, when we bought this new property…I called up Robert and said we bought a building and now we need a loan. I think that was backwards. But I tell you what, Robert was excited for us. He said we will do anything we possibly can to make it happen.

Robert Brando, Vice President & Client Manager, Bank of America, Baltimore: Fells Point had a vision – they doubled. They were able to handle it because they understood what they needed, they got it ready, and they went to work.

Alan Morstein, Owner, Regi’s American Bistro: In dealing with Fells Point meats, we have grown dramatically in the 10 years since we’ve been here. We started off with burgers and chicken breast sandwiches, and now we’re hand cut steaks and prime rib. I see from their processing plant and their butchering procedures that Fells Point meats has grown also. You know, we feed off each other.

Erik Oosterwijk, President, Fells Point Wholesale Meats: We’re looking to grow quit a bit over the next five years. We have a lot of ideas. In order to get to that growth we’re going to need that relationship with Bank of America to make and keep us successful.

From a Row House to New Facility/partnering-locally/meat-market.htmlView Videobankofamerica1359940|enter782|cr-en402/partnering-locally/meat-market.html_self1359940|enter782|2014_00||

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